


Take a Day

by cathodereytube



Category: RWBY
Genre: I'll be honest I dont know how to tag properly, Post-Volume 3 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-09-24 02:50:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9696398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cathodereytube/pseuds/cathodereytube
Summary: Ruby, Jaune, Ren, and Nora are all tired after weeks on the road without mush rest. As they rest and prepare for the next leg of their journey Nora takes some time to herself.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This'll be a short thing focusing on Nora because i feel like she doesn't get much to herself. This first part is a bit long for what I wanted this to be and is mostly setup to the rest of the little story, but I still like how it turned out.

It had been almost two weeks since team RNJR had last seen any signs of real civilization. They had just passed through an abandoned mining town and under the threat of bandits they stayed outside of the walls and never looked inside. However, for all their caution Nora had still gotten caught in a spike trap and had hurt her leg. She had sworn that she was fine after bandaging it, but the long and often sleepless nights combined with endless walking during the day had taken its toll and she hadn't fully healed. She knew that she should give herself time to heal, that it was normal to go slow after getting hurt, but her pride stopped her from telling the others that her aura was acting slowly. Her boot covered the cuts, but she had the feeling Ren knew despite her hiding it.

The road, which Ruby swore would take time off of the trip, was broken and weathered on the open hillside, forcing Nora to pay more attention to not tripping than thinking about her leg or the navigation skills of her teammates. It wasn’t her role anyway; Ruby had the Map, Jaune had the supplies, and Ren and her kept watch while they walked. Nora wasn’t expecting any attack here however. The Hillside they were on was at a sharp enough angle that anything lurking would have a pretty hard time being sneaky.

While Nora looked around, Ruby had taken out the map again and was staring at it intently. She rotated the map slightly, mumbling and hovering her finger over a dot on the paper, before making an excited squeak and rushing ahead.

“Ruby, wait!” Jaune called, anxiety clearly setting in despite the lack of any clear danger. Ruby rounded the bend and disappeared out of sight while calling back,

“It’s right here!” They all quickened their pace, hoping to see something to lift their spirits. As they ran, Nora felt a slight pain in her leg that hadn’t been there before. Not wanting to look like she was in pain, she luckily had the excuse of stopping to pick up the map that Ruby had dropped, apparently too excited to keep her hands full. She hated feeling like she might slow them down, and hated that her aura was so slow to act. Before she had learned to control aura she had been constantly covered in scrapes, bruises, and cuts but since becoming a huntswoman she had become much more impatient with injuries. When the spike had dug into her leg, she had been the one to break free, she was the one to remove it, and she was the one who bandaged it. She had done it all herself, and liked it that way, until she tried to sew the hole in her boot. Nora knew it was childish to be so stubborn and to resist Jaune’s help the way she had, they were a team after all, they covered each other's weaknesses, but this wasn’t a fight with grimm or anything that should be a team effort, it was herself. She trained just as hard as any of them to unlock her aura and that skill was going to heal her, she knew it. It wasn’t like she was any more tired now than before. They had been on tougher missions and she had taken harder hits, so why her aura wouldn’t just hurry up and heal her already was an aggravating mystery.

When she got around the hill, and her whole team was again in view, she shook her emotions off and breathed a happy sigh of relief at the sight. In the distance was the town they had been walking towards, a high wall connecting the ridges of higher cliffs. Being shielded from the wind of the barren slopes team RNJR was currently hiking over, there were far more deep greens and tall trees in contrast with the low shrubs and dull brownish greens of the dirt and grass up high. A townsman spotted them and he disappeared inside the gate before reemerging with two other guards and starting to making their way towards them.

“HEEEEEEEEEY!!” Ruby called out, louder than probably necessary, and started waving her hands in the air excitedly.

“Well, that took forever.” Nora said. 

“We’re here now though, so there’s nothing to worry about.” Jaune said, most likely to himself. He was sounding happier than Nora had seen him in a while regardless. “I wonder how big the town is?” They had all gotten a glimpse coming down the hill, but now the defensive wall was blocking their view. Most of the towns they’d passed through had walls but here the walls must have been 30 feet high.

“It looks large enough that they can at least sell us what we need. Or maybe we’ll be able to work for it.” Ren said, eyes focused on the approaching strangers, still very much on guard. “Did the map not indicate any helpful information?”

“Hah! That map is so old I bet this town is barely listed!” Nora laughed, trying to help diffuse Ren, who was looking more worried the closer the guards came without lowering their weapons. Ruby made it to the guards first and was answering their questions with her usual energy.

“We just came from Ridgeside and-”

“Wait slow down, Ridgeside is pretty far from here. More importantly, the old mine’s the only thing down this road. How’d you kids get past the bandits?”

“Easy, we just snuck around!”

“You four kids? You just snuck around the bandit camp? Just like that?”

“Well it wasn't like it wa-” Ruby was cut off again, this time by Ren,

“We’re huntsmen.”

“I was getting to that! Let me tell it!” Ruby said, looking annoyed. The oldest of the guards turned to Ren, and continued his questioning with the more calm participant. The guard was tall and had shorter hair that was almost entirely grey, with a voice that sounded like he was used to giving orders.

“You still seem a bit young to be a huntsman. Shouldn’t you be at some academy?”  He said, while Ruby had apparently decided to tell her story to the other two guards. She made a point of turning her back to Ren.

“We… we were students. Beacon Academy in Vale.” The three team members paying attention all became quiet. The man started to give a response but stopped himself short. Ruby was the only one talking for a moment before Jaune spoke up.

“Is there anything else you wanted to know? We really just want to pass through.” He waited, watching the guard think over everything they had told them.

“You look trustworthy enough, but if you're from Vale, why are you so far away from home? Where are you all heading?”

“Mistral.” The older man didn’t respond at first, just looked at the four of them for awhile.

“Hm… follow me.” He turned around and started making his way back towards the gate. He was quiet for the most part, only inquiring about their names before waving them off. There wasn’t anyone at the larger main gateway into town, so they passed through the guard post. A desk and some chairs were in the middle of the room, with lockers along the walls. A bulletin board and a map of the town were covered in papers, notes and drawings

Along the main street going into town there were a few signs pointing them towards an inn, a tavern, and a communications building, which had probably been unused since Beacon fell. The whole town was larger than any team RNJR had seen in quite awhile. The main road split and created three discrete sections, a market and shopping district, a more industrial area with heavy equipment and a few large storage buildings, and housing, the largest section. Most of the buildings in the former districts were all well built and none looked architecturally out of place, but the residential district was a very different story. Most of the houses looked like they were only very recently built, or built in a hurry. The center of the district resembled the rest of the town but the further out they went the less cohesion there was in the construction. Smaller and then eventually almost no space separated the buildings. Nora had seen some things like this before, but this didn’t feel as sad as the cities she had visited in the past. This was rushed construction but it wasn't careless. Every building was slightly different and individual. They were built with care.

Closest to the rear walls and next to the newer construction was the inn they had been searching for.

“There it is!” ruby pointed the building out to the others, and Nora was secretly thankful that it was most likely built before the buildings closest to it.

“Ranchview Inn. That’s a strange name considering the location.” Ren said, pointing out what Nora had glossed over without a second thought.

“Well, maybe it has a theme! Like some of those hotels in Vale, where everything looks like it was made 100 years ago but it's still really new!” Nora really liked the idea of being able to stay somewhere that was comfortable enough to use a theme to attract guests. Unfortunately her hopes were dashed by laughter from behind them.

“If only, right? Maybe you didn't notice when you came into town, but Ainrag doesn't get a lot of tourists. Especially not with the bandit camp down the road.” Walking up to them was one of the guards from earlier, out of uniform and in casual clothing. She was at least a foot taller than Nora and had messy red hair kept of her face with a bandana. “It’s called Ranchview because last year there were farms next door, not houses. You probably guessed, but all this,” She waved her hand at the nearby buildings, “is brand new.” She passed in front of them and opened the door to the inn. Inside there was a few people milling about comfortably, who all looked up at them as they came inside. “We stopped using this place as a real inn awhile back and now a few families live here, so you won't have to pay. Only downside is that there's only one room we leave open for travelers.” It was surprising that there were people living in the inn, but given how many people were living in Ainrag it wasn't that big of a surprise to find that they had used every resource to house people. She had the feeling that all this was related to them, it always seemed to come back to Beacon.

“One room is great! Anything’s better than sleeping on the ground.” Ruby was smiling and put her hand out to the much taller girl. “I’m Ruby, this is Jaune, Ren, and Nora.” She pointed to each of them with her free hand.

“Nice to meet ya. I’m Vasilisa Afanasyev.” She shook Ruby’s hand and looked at all of them. “Here, I’ll show you your room.” She smiled and gestured for them to follow her.

“Do you run the inn?” Nora was curious, Vasilisa seemed to be so involved with the town, guarding it and running the inn.

“My parents did, but now there isn't much to do. I just keep it clean now that they're gone.” She kept her casual tone of speech but still looked sad talking about what Nora assumed was her parents death. In every small town outside of the kingdoms there were always stories like this, everyone seemed to have lost people somehow. Ren and herself were no exceptions to this rule of course, they proved it more than anything. “Here we are.” Vasilisa pushed open the door and turned to look at them, “I know you said that you wouldn’t be staying long, but if that changes, we’ll move you somewhere else. Keeping people moving through helps keep spirits up.” Nora didn't quite understand what she meant. High walls that had kept farmland safe? The new construction and strange houses? Everything about Ainrag was odd.

If Nora wanted her questions answered, they would have to wait. Vasilisa quickly ushered them into the room and left them alone. As she was walking away Nora saw her face fall, her generally bright expression giving way to one that just looked tired.

“Well…” Ren spoke, calling her attention back into the room. “Is there anything we need to do or does just resting for a night sound appealing?” 

“I mean, there IS stuff i wanna know, but maybe tomorrow.” Ruby had pulled her bed into the center of the room and was dumping her pack out. “Like, why the walls? There aren't many grimm here? It’s really weird, right?” She didn't wait for anyone to answer before continuing “Or how about those buildings? Or the people? Or the Roads? They were paved! With shiny little tiles!” Jaune’s only response was to fall onto his bed and grunt something unintelligible.

Nora sat down and went to take off her shoes, but stopped herself short. She didn’t want them to find her out yet. Maybe if she waited until it was healed, then she might bring it up. Unfortunately her action did not go unnoticed. Ren was staring at her intently, his mouth open slightly. He was debating whether or not he should say anything; Nora knew exactly what he was thinking. They locked eyes for a moment before he  turned to look at Jaune and asked about their supplies. She was caught, and would have to deal with Ren sooner rather than later, but just now she was hoping to just get a decent night's sleep. She really didn't care that she was falling asleep in her jacket and boots, anything was more better than the dirt.

Eventually someone turned off the light, and everything was quiet.


	2. Early Mornings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My original intent for this fic was that it would be about 4-5 thousand words long, and that I would release the rest of it as one part, but now that I've written some of it, releasing in smaller parts seems a lot more feasible. I've had an outline for this story set from the very beginning, so things shouldn't drag on too long but who knows what'll happen!

The moment the sun was in the sky, team RNJR was awake. Nora was up and had grabbed her pack already when a hand was placed on her shoulder.

“Hey, we’re staying for a bit, remember?” Ruby’s voice was still slow with sleep, but her hand was firm and reassuring.

“Yeah, I-I know. Habits are weird I guess.” She set the bags down. “Like, we’re totally safe, and we don’t have to be gone anytime soon, it’s just…” She couldn't find the right words to describe the feeling. “Mmmn.”

“Mhm,” Ruby mumbled, sitting down against the wall with a blanket pulled over her. On the road, Ruby had done her best to always be up with the others, but she wasn't a morning person and while she might have toughed it out on the road, nothing was stopping her from being as tired as possible now.

Nora sat next to her and they watched silently as Ren went to go find the showers and Jaune woke up, looked around, and went back to sleep. She had no inclination to talk, comfortable silence with Ruby was one of the things she treasured most on the road. 

The last time that they had had such a quiet moment was nearly a month back. They had set camp on top of a hill under some incredibly old trees that had just started to turn for the spring season. Jaune and Ren were further down the hill looking for firewood, the result of a bet that had not gone in their favor. So Ruby and her had shared a quiet half hour, neither feeling the need to characteristically fill the silence. Nora hadn’t put much thought into it before, but maybe now she had the opportunity to reflect. After all it appeared that this morning was another moment like that one, or at least Nora had no intention of saying anything. Ruby had a different goal though, and this quiet moment was a perfect opportunity.

“Nora, you're okay right?” She said, barely more than a whisper. “When you got hurt you said you were fine, but ever since then you've been acting weird,” Ruby said, breaking the silence. Ruby was always genuine, it was endearing once you got past the tactlessness of it.

There was no point in lying now that she had been directly confronted and the quiet moment was gone. Ren was already suspicious enough. 

“It’s my aura. It’s been a bit slow, that's all.” Nora was going to spin this, ruby might know she WAS hurt, but that didn't mean she had to know it STILL hurt.

“We could have helped you.” Ruby looked at her intently. Nora locked eyes with her in an attempt to appear genuine and to throw suspicion, neither saying anything until Ruby’s hand shot out and jabbed, maybe harder than intended, into Nora’s poor leg. She grunted in pain and shied away from the smaller girl. “It STILL hasn't healed?” The jig was up. Ruby gave up being quiet and had switched into full leadership mode, pulling Nora’s legs out from under her. 

“Ow ow ow OW OW RUBY!” Nora struggled weakly as Ruby inspected her leg.

“Nope, that is 100 percent not a healthy leg,” Ruby stated bluntly. “Jaune wake up and get some medicine.” She threw a pillow at him.

“I heard you, geez.” He sat up and rifled through an old cloth bag, pulling out some ointment, medical tape, and a bandages. “This good?”

“No, that’s way too much! It’s healing!” Nora exclaimed. 

“Shh you, that’s probably good, yeah,” Said Ruby. Jaune tossed her the supplies.

“Can you at least let me bandage it?” 

“You did that the first time and it didn't even heal!”

“How about we let Ren do it then?” Jaune said, trying to find a middle ground. He was back in bed, but still awake.

“I’m not  _ that _ bad at bandaging.”

“Fine, Ren can do it.” Nora conceded the point. At the very least Ren was going to apply the bandage, Ruby wasn't a terrible medic, she was just impatient.

“Betrayed by my own team,” Ruby dramatically sighed, setting the bandages down. 

_ At least the mood’s light  _ Nora thought. Team arguments tended to be this way, lightly poking fun at each other and trying to badger the others into agreeing. More sincere and serious conversation was done mostly one on one.

They waited, chatting idly, for Ren to return. When the door finally did open however, the person who stepped into their room was a short woman with a baby in her arms.

“Miss Afanasyev wanted to let you all know that she’s made a breakfast in the main room if you’d like it.” The woman laughed lightly and pushed the door shut before continuing. “The food isn’t really all that good, but she tries hard. It’s edible and fresh but that's about the only good quality. Just smile and eat it, won’t you kids?.” her tone was cheerful but she seemed genuinely invested in getting them to eat the food.

“All we’ve really eaten for the past few weeks has been dehydrated, it can't be worse than that,” Jaune said. 

“Good then,” She said and left, content that she had convinced them to stay quiet about the quality of the food. The three of them were again left to wait for Ren to return.

“Any bets on how bad the food is?” Nora said, trying to spark conversation.

“I’m sure it’s fine, Nora,” Replied Jaune.

“If it’s worse than Weiss’ cooking I’ll give you Cresent Rose.” 

“You can’t make a bet where only you know the parameters! We haven’t had Weiss make us anything.” Despite the bet never being serious, Nora still liked to poke holes in Ruby’s proposed plan. “I will take the bet on only one condition. If you judge the coming meal to be better than Weiss’ attempts at cooking, I lose nothing.” She gave her sentence her best Atlas accent and stared at Ruby.

“You. Are. On.” Ruby stabbed her hand out to Nora and they shook. Of course, the second the handshake was over Ruby burst out laughing. 

“Wasn’t the result of Weiss cooking experiment that black lump you kept in the corner of your dorm, Ruby?” Said a familiar voice from the door. Ren was back, his hair still wet, and he had apparently been listening in on their conversation before entering the room.

“What? No. No that was… um… That was a sculpture of Zwei!” Ruby lied. 

“That was metallic lump was food?” Ruby was laughing uncontrollably now.

“Yang was the only one who ate any! She chipped a tooth!” She managed to get out in between hiccups. Her laughter was infectious, everyone was smiling.

Eventually she calmed down and sat upright, grabbing the bandages and throwing them at Ren. “Anyways… Nora lied about being better and we need you to bandage her up because she doesn't want me to do it for some reason.” If Ren hadn’t already been suspicious of her, Ruby’s explanation being interrupted by hiccups might not have been convincing, but he took the supplies and sat down anyway. 

“Hmm.” He poked gently at the wound, examining it and applying the ointment. “We have two options; First, you rest and let your aura heal it, Second, you go to a real doctor and he gives us a more powerful medicine.” He untangled the bandages and wrapped them tightly around Nora’s leg.

“Aura, that one please,” Nora said. 

“I mean it when I say rest. You shouldn't do anything more than walking for a day or two.”

“I get it, Ren, no running with the bulls or any fun stuff.”

“Running with bulls would be dangerous for many other reasons.” 

“I know.” She smiled at him and stood up. “I’m ready for food, you guys?”

“That sounds perfect,” Jaune said. “Oh yeah, Ren…” He explained what they'd been informed about the food as they all got ready to go meet the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm using some basic headcanon-y stuff to flush out characters and interactions on a more mundane level, since that kind of stuff is never really the focus of the show. I'm always up for headcanon/character talk, who doesn't want to know which RNJR member can cook best?


End file.
